Over the weekend, Canada’s Jason StatusUpLavallee (pictured) won the 888 Poker Whale for $31,000. The $600 buy-in tournament that runs every two weeks attracted almost 300 entrants and had a $155,000 prize pool. It was his fourth largest online poker cash to date and raised his career winnings in online MTTs past $2 million.

PocketFives: Congrats on the 888 Whale win. Tell us how you’re feeling about it.

Jason Lavallee: It felt good to win something other than a satellite, I guess. It always feels good to win a tournament no matter how big or how small.

PocketFives: For those of us who aren’t familiar with it, tell us about the 888 Whale’s structure and field makeup. It runs every two weeks and has a $600 buy-in.

Jason Lavallee: The $500+ buy-ins online attract the same crowd mixed in with the occasional recreational player. The structure is great like most of 888’s tournaments. The field is slightly weaker than the Sunday 500 and it has a few more spots than the $500 on PartyPoker if I had to guess. Sometimes it’s hard to figure since it runs rarely and when it does it’s mixed in with another 20 or so tables for most of the afternoon on Sundays.

It was fun to win. I had a very brutal day, as I’m sure most of my viewers on Twitch could attest to, but in my usual Sunday fashion, I pulled out some one-table heroics.

PocketFives: This was your biggest score in a while. What have you been up to?

Jason Lavallee: I took a year off from MTTs, played a lot of PLO, and worked on other projects away from the table. After 2013, I felt like I really gave it my all, won my first “big” tournament (the EPT London High-Roller), and lost the drive to put in that much volume in MTTs.

Outside of SCOOPs and the rare Sunday, I haven’t played much MTT poker and haven’t been traveling for live poker for about 15 months until the beginning of June, when I started a stream on Twitch and people wanted to see tournaments, so I obliged.

PocketFives: Have you enjoyed being on Twitch?

Jason Lavallee: It’s fun and challenging. I’m used to having people over to my place to grind, so it’s a new way to interact with people and it’s cool to see a community being built from the ground up. I’m still learning a lot in regards to streaming, but so far the feedback has been great.

PocketFives: Are you still playing a lot of PLO?

Jason Lavallee: Not as much as of late. I’ve re-shifted my focus since I started streaming. I don’t feel as comfortable streaming cash where I would have to lower the stakes and crush my hourly, whereas for tournaments it’s not that big of a concern.

PocketFives: You’re headed to Barcelona?

Jason Lavallee: Yeah. I’m flying to Barcelona later today for 12 days to play the EPT and bum around on the beach. It’s going to be my first live tournament since the Grand Final two seasons ago, excluding the WSOP Main Event this year. I’ve played my fair share of live poker over the years, so I’m sure I’ll shake the rust off rather quickly.

PocketFives: Is there anyone you look up to or depend on nowadays?

Jason Lavallee: Funny you ask. In Barcelona, I rented a house with some friends. Two guys I really look up to are Pass_72(pictured) and takechip, who will be housemates of mine. They are great NLHE minds and I look forward to 12 days of annoying them and picking their brains.

PocketFives: Who do you think will emerge victorious from the 2015 WSOP November Nine?

Jason Lavallee: It’s hard not to go for Joseph McKeehen with the lead. Zvi Stern showed tons of heart and played some pretty interesting pots. I’d love to see him get down to three- or four-handed to make for some interesting TV.

PocketFives: Who would you like to send shout outs to?

Jason Lavallee: Shout outs to my Twitch followers, the Quebec poker community (including transplants we have), and all the kids who grew up in poker and stopped wearing hoodies, glasses, and noise-cancelling headphones while playing live poker.

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